K-mart, Lay-away, and other ad-hoc ideas…

So I used to think layaway was a great thing, kind of like credit. You can’t afford it now, but if you budget you can have it in a few weeks. The catch being you don’t really need the “program” to do the same thing – it’s called sticking to a budget and saving. But in theory, it helps the less disciplined.

In theory. But then I ask myself, why did they get rid of lay-away in the first place? My opinion is that everyone became credit card budgeteers and charged it anyway, so what’s the point delaying paying it off twice. The business is just slowing down their bottom-line intake. But then the credit market hit a major bump in the road – they were lending to people who didn’t have a way to pay them back. Oops. And unlike lay-away, where you can pay down the principle without paying some ridiculous interest on top of it – the debt just grew.

So now Kmart is bringing back the lay-away and I’m not sure how I feel about it. I’m not sure if it’s a good sign or if it’s just pandering to people living outside their means. In either case, the bottom line is you’re trying to get something you don’t have the money for.